Chess is an abstract strategy game with no hidden information. Chess is about setting up goals and long-term plans for future play. This is not how modern politics is played. For the most part, politics is now about using the past activity of your opponents to advance your agenda.
Scrabble is a better political metaphor. Everyone starts out with random selections of tiles. They then try to form words that deliver the highest number of points. You look for opportunities created by your opponents, then build on those achievements or mistakes to your advantage using the tiles you have. With politics (as with scrabble), long-term plans seem irrelevant.
As with politics, in scrabble, the random nature of having to work with the titles you’ve picked can lead to a dead end. That’s where you forego a ‘turn’, hoping that a refresh will increase your chances. The same is true of politics. Sometimes a party or movement is nowhere, so they have to accept a loss and use the time out of power to ‘pick new tiles’.
Media and communications are the game of politics. Politicians and parties are always trying to score points. Traditional and new media play a role in this process. They are the scorekeepers if we want to keep with the scabble analogy; however, their scorekeeping isn't always accurate. In some cases, they may even be helping one side cheat.
The reality is that representative democracies have probably always been a bit of a game. However, that doesn't mean that this game cannot be used to deliver objective and meaningful outcomes for people and the planet. There is a way of delivering real change, not just point-scoring.
The media are as (if not more) motivated by page views than the substance and agendas of politicians and political parties. In a recent survey, 70% of journalists said they would share a story based on a trending storyline. In the same study, 68% of journalists said they would share a story based on an image. This research indicates that journalists know that images and videos are how you capture and hold readers or viewers' attention. The lesson here is that if you want the 'scorekeeper' on your side, start using visual content in your media engagement strategy.
Whether you see the game of politics as Scrabble or Chess, if you want to master the game, you need a newsroom solution that allows you to use all of your pieces to generate more wins and make more advanced moves. To do this, you need a Lookatmedia™ newsroom solution.
